War

wars are fought with men and iron, and not with gold.

People sometimes refer to money as the sinews of war/ the foundation of all power/ even as man’s second blood supply/ or the principal sustaining’ force of life and happiness. This could be excused on the grounds of
ignorance, and because of the connection between the ideas of things and their images.

Money is not wealth, but its reflection
and a deceptive instrument of wealth.*

They exchange images for things?